Enjoy this moment for this moment is your life.

Our Florida Vacation

We finally made it to Florida! We had a great time there. Although, getting there and getting home were a little more complicated than I anticipated. Because of the way the frequent flier miles worked out, Shaun flew on one plane and I took our three girls on the other. On the way there we were all worried because we thought Shaun was going to miss his flight. He went to park the car and got pulled over by the police for speeding and then couldn't find a parking spot. I checked his bags and got his tickets and he just made it. I thought all the drama was over until I went to check in and found out my plane had already left! Apparently they changed my flight time to an hour earlier and failed to notify me. I had to fly standby the whole way there. The way home was even worse. This time I made sure to check my flight times. But Miami international requires you to check in 45 min before your flight not the usual 30min of most airports, I was late by 5 min and they wouldn't let me on my plane, so once again I had to fly standby. This time, however, the planes were much more crowded, and we had mechanical issues on both flights, turning an already long trip into 2 hours longer. Needless to say we were glad to make it home.

Other than the plane rides we had a fabulous trip. I had trouble narrowing down the pictures, so I decided to break it up into days. Sorry this post is so long.

Day one flight out and Miami beach!

The girls were so excited to ride in an airplane for the first time. On our first take off Brianne got so excited she kind of forgot there were other people on the plane and practically shouted with excitement, "we are up in the air Mom!" Everyone in the airplane was laughing.

We finally made it to out hotel on Miami beach. Our original hotel had overbooked and so they payed for us to stay at a 5 star hotel just down the road. It was really nice, our room was huge with a full kitchen and a washer and dryer. We had a beautiful view of the beach and the Miami lights at night time. The minute we got to our hotel, we threw our swimming suits on and headed out to the beach the girls had lots of fun, but they both wished the ocean wasn't salty, because it tasted bad when it got in their mouths.

Here is Sydnie having fun in the water the first day was about the only day she enjoyed the water she got knocked over by a wave shortly after this picture and it ruined her for the rest of the trip. She wouldn't even get her feet wet in the tidal pools of water that were completely still.

Day two more Miami beach and alligators.

We spent the morning again on the beach, then cleaned up and headed for a place called Holiday park just outside of Ft. Lauderdale. They have air boat rides on the everglades. The girls had fun on the boat and we saw quite a few alligators and other wild life. After the boat ride, they do an alligator show and then let the kids hold a baby alligator if they want to. My girls were not scared at all to hold it. Later that day we drove over to the Gulf of Mexico and stayed on Sanibel Island, a little island just of the shore by Ft. Meyers. It is know for its sea shells and the girls had allot of fun looking for them.

Kaylee and Brianne holding the baby alligator at Holiday Park.


Day 3 Playing on the Beach at Sanibel.

We spent the whole day on the beach. The girls had fun playing in the water, either in the ocean or in the swimming pool just of the beach by our hotel.

Kaylee and Shaun body surfing. This is one of the few times she got it to work. The waves were not huge on this part of the ocean.


Brianne and I made a sea shell sand castle. It managed to last the whole day.

This is not sand we are sitting in it is seashells. The shells are piled up into big mounds all down the whole beach. The shells are as plentiful as the sand. So the trick is not finding shells, its finding the good ones.

Sydnie thought it was great fun to sit in a pile of seashells and throw them. She looked so cute in her little sun dress throwing the shells, that everyone who walked by was commenting on the cute little sea shell princess.

That evening the tide went way out and we were finding all kinds of fun things. We made a tidal pool and filled it up with all kinds of live shells. We found small conch shells and hermit crabs, sea urchins and some sort of clam thing. The girls especially like the clams they would stick their foot out, and try to jump out of the tidal pool. Kaylee would laugh and laugh, and Sydnie kept trying to grab them and almost got her finger stuck inside one of the clam shells.

I just had to add this picture of all of our feet in one of the piles of sea shells.

Saying goodbye to Sanibel. This Island is also known for its spectacular sunsets, and it did not disappoint us on our last night there.

Day Four Sea World.

The girls had had their fill of the beach so the last day we decided to make an unplanned stop to Sea World. We got up early Saturday morning and made the long drive to Orlando and spent the whole day at Sea World. It was allot of fun and the girls favorite part of the trip.

Kaylee and Brianne had allot of fun riding the kiddie rides at the end of the day. Here they are on the Shamu Express roller coaster.